IMPERIAL WARSHIPS

The Galactic Empire spans tens of thousands of star systems. Most of these star systems have many planets - some are habitated, some are not - and the only thing all those worlds have in common is that they belong to a single banner - a Imperial banner.

To guard so many systems, the Empire needs a starfleet. What it has is the Imperial Navy - the largest and the most powerful fleet ever constructed in history of mankind. The Imperial Fleet is ever-present - whether in a lonely system on the fringe of the galaxy, or a shining jewel in the Galactic Core - and is ready, able and large enough to deal with any threat that might arise...

This colossal Navy has many hundreds of classes of starships in it's service. But the core of the Navy is composed of several main ship classes which form the mainstray of the fleet. These starship classes are named here in the order of size and power. Some ships have been omitted because of unreliable data on them (the Eclipse-class Star Destroyer, for instance) and are not added here because their existence is not confirmed by reliable sources (translation: if it's not in the movies or at least with heavy backing - it's not here, either).

MAIN WARSHIP CLASSES:

1. Executor-class Star Destroyer

Ship dimensions:

Length (at central line): 8,000 meters (5 miles) *
Width (at the bridge): 4,450 meters (2,8 miles) *
Height (at the bridge): 2,650 meters (1,7 miles) *

* - all dimensions are rough estimation as no living person could measure such a craft. They should be accurate within about 150 meters.

Production data:

Production: Kuat Drive Yards (KDY) Inc.
Designer: Lira Wessex (KDY Inc.)
Avrg. build time: 24 weeks (6 months)
Combat designation: Command ship (Heavy Battleship class)
Est. number built: ~9 (several more presumed aborted while under construction)

Ship armament and movement:

Primary weaponry: 250 Heavy Turbolaser batteries
Secondary weaponry: 250 Standard Turbolaser batteries
Ion weaponry: 250 Ion Cannons
Missile weaponry: 250 Concussion Missile Tubes (60 missiles per tube)
Tractor beams: 40 Phylon generators with projector emplacements
Engines: 8 primary engines
Standard cruising speed: 10 MGLT
Maximum retreat speed: 60 MGLT (weapons and shields must be off-line to achieve this speed)
Hyperdrive: Military issue, class I
Power system: SFS solar ionization reactor

Ship complement and carrying capacity:

Crew: 279,144
Skeleton crew: ~50,000 (this information was never tested in practice)
Gunners: 1,590
Troops: ~38,800
Spacetroopers: 24 platoons
Pilots: ~364 average figure (varies from ship to ship according to starfighter configuration)
Freight capacity: ~250,000 metric tons
Attack vehicles: 25 AT-AT Walkers
Support vehicles: 50 AT-ST Walkers
Vehicle landing craft: 24 Landing Barges
Additional: 3 prefabricated garrison bases (ready for instant deployment)

TOTAL STANDARD CREW: ~319,922

Starfighter and daughter-ship capacity:

6 squadrons of TIE /ln Fighters (standard) - 72 fighters *
4 squadrons of TIE Interceptors - 48 fighters *
2 squadrons of TIE Bombers - 24 fighters
16 Lambda-class Imperial Shuttles
~50 other landing, transport and auxiliary craft (includes ~10-15 Stormtrooper Transports)

TOTAL DAUGHTER-SHIP CAPACITY: ~210

* - Alternative fighter configurations flow towards replacing standard TIE Fighters with TIE Interceptors and the Interceptors with the more expensive TIE Advanced craft. The numbers stated are for an average Executor-class during the Empire's height - all of the information is based on the status of the Star Destroyer Executor just before the battle of Endor.

History:

As is standard practice within the Empire, all ship classes and lines are named after the first ship build of such class. As it happened, ignorance and fear led to the Executor-class Star Destroyer being branded as a Super-class Star Destroyer. Mainly responsible for this, are the ignorant Rebel fools who's spying operations against us are so puny they cannot even discover the true name of a starship.

The need for the Executor-class (the ESD) was first revealed after the battle of Yavin. The Imperial Navy's drive against the Rebels following the battle showed some minor lack of coordination between ships pursuing the enemy. A decision was soon reached that the Empire needed a new symbol. The answer came in the form of Lira Wessex's new monster. Without any major delay, the design was approved by the Navy and construction was started at the Fondor shipyards (the only Executor-class to be constructed outside of KDY's shipyards). During the construction itself, the design went through minor changes. What was originally conceived as a communication ships with large internal space for support starfighters, was slowly altered into a super-heavy battleship that could resist any challenge. This change in design is not surprising, as the sequent design drew more similarities to the successful Imperial-class, and less to the technical innovations proposed by Lira Wessex. Still, the ship retained many of it's original innovations - featuring, among others, a brilliant communications network that could make the ship communicate with the entire galaxy, in most cases: even through extensive and fat screen of radio-jamming.

With the construction complete, the newly christened Executor was given by the Emperor to Lord Vader who survived the humiliating defeat at Yavin. With his new command ship, Vader sought to assemble the most dangerous task force of all time. The newly formed Death Squadron was composed of the Executor and five of the universe's most famous and elite Imperial Star Destroyers. This task force searched throughout the galaxy for the Rebel scum, eventually finding and defeating them at such places as the Derra system, and finally obliterating the main Rebel base at Hoth. There were many other ESD's produced after the Executor, most of them serving as flagships to important and prominent dignitaries and officers within the Empire, and so little of them gained actual combat experience. However the puny Rebels, who (as all good terrorists) always like striking at high-prestige targets, combined several task forces with the strict mission of destroying the Executor-class starships, and their number slowly diminished (such task forces were successful in claiming three Executor-class Star Destroyers).

A few more starships were also under construction, but all production of such ships was discontinued after the incident at Endor.

2. Imperial-class Star Destroyer

Ship dimensions:

Length (at central line): 1,600 meters (1 mile) *
Width (at the bridge): 890 meters (0,6 miles) *
Height (at the bridge): 530 meters (0,3 miles) *

* - all dimensions are estimation. They should be accurate within about 150 meters.

Production data:

Production: Kuat Drive Yards (KDY) Inc.
Designer: Lira Wessex (KDY Inc.)
Avrg. Build time: 6 weeks (1,5 months)
Combat designation: Combat capital starship (Battleship class)
Est. number built: ~25,000 (after Hoth, est. 37,000 at all)

Ship armament and movement:

Primary weaponry: 60 Heavy Turbolaser batteries & turrets
Ion weaponry: 60 Ion Cannon batteries
Missile weaponry: 2 Warhead Launcher Systems for missiles or torpedoes
Tractor beams: 10 Phylon Q7 projector emplacements
Engines: 3 primary + 4 secondary engines
Standard cruising speed: 10 MGLT
Maximum retreat speed: 80 MGLT (weapons and shields must be off-line to achieve this speed)
Hyperdrive: Military issue, class I
Power system: SFS I-a2b solar ionization reactor

Ship complement and carrying capacity:

Crew: 36,810
Skeleton crew: ~18,000
Gunners: 275
Troops: 9,700
Spacetroopers: 2 platoons
Pilots: ~128 average figure (varies from ship to ship according to starfighter configuration)
Freight capacity: ~36,000 metric tons
Attack vehicles: 20 AT-AT Walkers
Support vehicles: 30 AT-ST Walkers
Vehicle landing craft: 12 Landing Barges
Additional: 10 Viper Probe Droids

TOTAL STANDARD CREW: ~46,913

Starfighter and daughter-ship capacity:

3 squadrons of TIE /ln Fighters (standard) - 36 fighters *
2 squadrons of TIE Interceptors - 24 fighters
1 squadron of TIE Bombers - 12 fighters
8 Lambda-class Imperial Shuttles
~20 other landing, transport and auxiliary craft (includes ~5-10 Stormtrooper transports)

TOTAL DAUGHTER-SHIP CAPACITY: ~100

* - Alternative fighter configurations flow towards replacing standard TIE Fighters with TIE Interceptors. The numbers stated are for an average Imperial-class during the Empire's height.

History:

The need for a capital starship within the Empire was quickly realized by the High Command. The fledging and weak Republic left no such warships in its arsenal. The Clone Wars that plagued the galaxy for many years diminished what little fleet the Republic had. The ship that revolutionized the shipbuilding industry by its appearance was the Victory-class Star Destroyer. This ship was over 800 meters long, a construction feat unseen in the Republic, and was considered to be blistering with enough weapons to bring down entire fleets and worlds. This showed to be true and the Clone Wars soon ended in the Republic's favor, for which the VSD took a lot of credit. When the Empire took over, VSD's were common ships - many corporate alliances and local defense forces had them. Because of this, the Empire understood the need for a new starship - one reserved solely for the military that could bring in line any other starship. The design to spring out of this need was presented by a young woman named Lira Wessex, daughter of the man who designed the Victory-class. The design was to become the mainstray of the Imperial military forces.

The regressive Imperial Senate argued the design under pretext that large starships waste resources needlessly. The Empire wisely ignored any such proclamations and the first starship, the Imperial, was soon commissioned by the Emperor himself. The newly produced starship proved resilient and hard, proving against all criticism with perfection. It depended on it's predecessor's wedge-shaped hull enlarged twice. While the Victory-class had atmospheric regulators for entering the planet's atmosphere, the Imperial-class was so heavily armed with turbolasers that that was not needed. The amount of weapons on board the ISD was enough to bring all planets to submission. Those planets that were armed as war-fortresses could easily be put in line by a few ISD's. The design featured, for the first time in a starship, factory prefabricated parts which meant that damaged or destroyed parts could be replaced with minimal trouble and shortest time (this contributed to the speedy 6 week building time).

With the Empire spreading it's power throughout the galaxy, the size of it's fleet grew. The Imperial-class was branded as the flagship of the Empire (at least until the Executor-class was produced) and, soon after the battle of Yavin, a new version begun appearing. This new, Imperial-II class Star Destroyer featured some important modifications that made the ship even better. Among other modifications, the new shield system increased it's durability and the overrated number of ion cannons was cut in favor of more turbolasers. Despite these important modifications, they were strategically conducted and prepared, so that the existing Imperial-I class starships might be simply upgraded to the new class with little fuss and in short time span. This upgrade, along with the construction of new ships brought about a leap forward in the strength of the Imperial fleet. At the time of Endor, it is estimated that there were two Imperial-II class ships for each Imperial-I class.

At the end, even with or without the modifications to the design, the Imperial-class proved its worth. The durable and forgiving design will ensure the ship's use throughout the ages to come, and some experts estimate it will still be in use some 60 years in the future, probably in the form of some Imperial-III and Imperial-IV class?

3. Victory-class Star Destroyer

Ship dimensions:

Length (at central line): 900 meters (0,56 miles) *
Width (at the bridge): 500 meters (0,31 miles) *
Height (at the bridge): 295 meters (0,18 miles) *

* - all dimensions are estimation. They should be accurate within about 100 meters.

Production data:

Production: Rendili StarDrive (original design) / Kuat Drive Yards (KDY) Inc.
Designer: Wallex Blissex (Rendili StarDrive)
Avrg. Build time: 3-4 weeks
Combat designation: Combat capital starship (Heavy Cruiser class)
Est. number built: a LOT

Ship armament and movement:

Primary weaponry: 10 Quad Turbolaser turrets
Secondary weaponry: 40 Double Turbolaser batteries
Missile weaponry: 80 Concussion Missile Warhead Launcher Systems
Tractor beams: 10 Phylon projector emplacements
Engines: 3 primary + 4 secondary engines
Standard cruising speed: 8 MGLT
Maximum retreat speed: ~50 MGLT (weapons and shields must be off-line to achieve this speed)
Hyperdrive: Military issue, class I
Power system: Solar ionization reactor

Ship complement and carrying capacity:

Crew: 5,200
Skeleton crew: ~1,500
Gunners: ?
Troops: 2,040
Pilots: ~30 average figure (varies from ship to ship according to starfighter configuration)
Freight capacity: ~8,100 metric tons
Attack vehicles: ~10 Juggernaught tanks (see description bellow, since configuration varies from ship to ship)

TOTAL STANDARD CREW: ~7,270

Starfighter and daughter-ship capacity:

2 squadrons of TIE /ln Fighters (standard) - 24 fighters *
4 Lambda-class Imperial Shuttles
~4 other landing, transport and auxiliary craft

TOTAL DAUGHTER-SHIP CAPACITY: ~32

* - Since there are so many of VSD's in service, it is impossible to describe a "standard" configuration. These numbers stated are for a common kind of VSD's in Imperial service. Other vessels (such as planetary defense forces) have larger starfighters aboard which makes their total number less. Assume that 2 squadrons of TIE fighters = 1 squadron of other fighters (another superb proof of advanced Imperial technology).

History:

Victory-class Star Destroyers were designed in the old era of the Galactic Republic. They made their first appearance during the Clone Wars, designed as an attempt to strengthen the Republic's power in space which was seriously contested by the Confederacy of Independent System's powerful starfleet (consisting mainly of the Trade Federation battleships). The Republic demanded a starship which could take on entire fleets and emerge victorious. The Rendili StarDrive's promising designer named Wallex Blissex provided the answer to that request. The new ship was made in conjunction with Kuat Drive Yards whose contribution was relatively small. The Victory-class Star Destroyer would soon prove its worth and eventually outperform and outclass the only other major starship of the Republic - the Rendili's Dreadnaught Heavy Cruiser. With the slow fall of the Republic to corruption, the Rendili StarDrive fell to internal problems and was eventually brought to charges of treason and forced to bankruptcy due to a large number of negative events (including the Katana Fleet incident) which were never cleared up, but were attributed to industrial sabotage by the hostile shipbuilding market. It's fall brought about a massive defection of personnel to Kuat Drive Yards (including the designer Wallex Blissex and his daughter - the woman who designed the ship's replacement: the Imperial-class) and KDY eventually bought the Rendili StarDrive and brought it out of it's financial and law troubles. With this takeover, KDY also inherited the license for the VSD and started to produce it until the Imperial-class was designed and entered general use. The KDY also designed the improved, Victory-II class, version.

The ship was considered unusual in the fact that it was the only ship of such a large class designed to enter a planetary atmosphere. The ship is equipped by two side-mounted atmospheric Maneuvering Surfaces to allow this. These surfaces are retracted when the ship is in space and extended when it enters bellow planetary orbit. The VSD has this as it's main feature because the Clone Wars were mainly focused on ground fighting for important planets - while the space fleets were simply a means of transporting troops to another system. Because of this, the VSD is designed to approach closer to ground for ground-support missions. This does not mean, however, that the ship is lacking in space - in fact, the ship is equipped with enough weaponry to pound most fleets and survive extended concentration of fire on its own hull.

Another unusual feature about the ship is that it has a large number of warhead launchers. Again, this powerful projectile weaponry was added as a means of ground-support. Although it is also a good weapon for space combat, most modern ships are protected by shields that deflect solid objects (like asteroids or missiles) with little problem - hence the need for turbolasers. These warhead launchers operate to a much greater effect within the planetary orbit where few ground installations have shields and these weapons can do great harm. To ensure that these ground-support weapons would not cripple the VSD's offensive space capabilities, the ship is armed with quad turbolaser turrets that can take out most space freighters with a single blow. As support for faster moving targets like fighters, twin turbolaser batteries are placed throughout the ship's hull. As most ships of pre-Imperial era, the VSD has no ion cannon weaponry. It is common knowledge that the civilized Empire has less of a drive to kill then the Republic who ignored ion weaponry which is so useful in capturing opponents.

Although the Victory-class is aging, it's modifications ensure that it remains a competitive starship even in modern era. The ship's biggest disadvantage in modern warfare is it's sublight speed which is the slowest in the military arsenal of any real fleet. Practice has confirmed that these starships work impressive in packs of few, and this has led to further use of the ship that remains in service still, largely due to constant fighting throughout the galaxy. However, since it's age, most of these starships have been removed from front-line service and have been moved into low-importance assignments, like guarding secondary stations and systems. Local defense units in various systems like to purchase these vessels from the Empire because of it's relatively low price and use them as guarding ships. Because of all of this, as well as the chaos in the Republic's era, it is impossible to even assume how many of these fine ships were build - even worse, no "standard" information can be given as the ship is used in such a variety of armed forces and specific mission configurations that no "standard" information exists. For example, some of these ships were transformed to scout vessels with no fighters and added supplies. These types were sent throughout the galaxy to the unknown regions to chart new worlds. Despite the fact that construction of these vessels has been discontinued, their large number ensures that they will not be absent from the galactic space lanes for a long time to come...

4. Immobilizer 418-class Interdictor Cruiser

Ship dimensions:

Length (at central line): 600 meters (0,37 miles) *
Width (at the bridge): 330 meters (0,21 miles) *
Height (at the bridge): 198 meters (0,12 miles) *

* - all dimensions are estimation. They should be accurate within about 40 meters.

Production data:

Production: Sienar Fleet System
Designer: Sienar Fleet System design team
Avrg. Build time: 2-3 weeks
Combat designation: Interdiction craft (Light Cruiser class)
Est. number built: Unknown

Ship armament and movement:

Primary weaponry: 20 Quad Laser Cannon turrets
Missile weaponry: Concussion Missile Warhead Launcher System
Tractor beams: None
Special armament: Four gravity well projectors and a well generator
Engines: 3 primary engines
Standard cruising speed: 10 MGLT
Maximum retreat speed: ~60 MGLT (weapons, shields and projectors must be off-line to achieve this speed)
Hyperdrive: Military issue, class I
Power system: Solar ionization reactor

Ship complement and carrying capacity:

Crew: Estimated 2,807
Skeleton crew: ~800
Gunners: 24
Troops: 1,000
Pilots: ~8 for transport crews
Freight capacity: Unknown

TOTAL STANDARD CREW: ~3,839

Starfighter and daughter-ship capacity:

The Interdictor cruiser carries no fighters, but as most large vessels has transport craft attached for transfer of personal and equipment.
Most commonly 2 Lambda-class Imperial Shuttles or 4 Stormtrooper Transports

TOTAL DAUGHTER-SHIP CAPACITY: 2 or 4

History:

The Sienar Fleet System company's primary asset is the starfighter-building market. Their only major deviation from that policy was the excellent Immobilizer 418, better known as "Interdictor Cruiser". The ship is superb in it's own class because not many ships come equipped with four gravity well projectors. These devices produce an artificial gravity well, thereby creating a field which blocks hyperspace travel. All ships in hyperspace fall back to normal space and those attempting to flee cannot do so while the Cruiser has it's wells active. The strength of the well has to be directed at a certain point, for which it blocks all hyperspace traffic.

Latecomers to the Galactic Civil War, these Cruiser have been entering general service for some time, since after the battle of Yavin. Although they were still rare by the battle of Endor, they were most often assigned to task forces, boosting their qualities and using their abilities to enable Imperial ships to pin the enemy and deny it the chance to escape. The whole project, in fact, originated because of Rebel hit-and-fade attacks which were making attacks anywhere they liked and then simply escaped to hyperspace. With the presence of these Cruisers, escape becomes impossible.

The whole ship is build around the standard and superb Imperial Cruiser shell used for Victory, Imperial and Super-class Star Destroyers and deviates only in the four great globes (the projectors) that dominate the middle of the ship. The ship is lightly armed - having only 20 Quad Laser Cannons - thereby requesting heavy support on most missions. Most successful Imperial experiences saw pairing of these vessels with Imperial-class Star Destroyers, making a duo that is hard to match. Lack of any meaningful hangar bay means to fighter squadrons, although few transports have to be present aboard to make the vessel able to receive and send people, supplies and boarding parties. This, however, only strengths Imperial resolve not to have these vessels near direct enemy fire. In fact, due to their gravity wells, most Interdictors become priority target for the enemy in any serious engagement. This fact has led to significant casualties in the already small number of Cruisers available - although, to be honest, most of those battles would not even transpire, had it not been for the Interdictor to keep the enemy trapped...

The appearance of this vessel has worsened the situation of smugglers and pirates, who had difficulties evading Imperial starships even before.

COMING SOON:

Nebulon-B-class Frigate

Assasain-class Corvette